The causes of the enhanced greenhouse effect and assessment of the difficulties in reducing its impacts.

        There are both natural and human-induced causes of the greenhouse effect. Of course, because of the natural circulation of elements, there are a lot of emissions of gases like CO2, nitrous oxide and water vapor in the atmosphere. In fact, the greenhouse effect is a natural phenomenon, totally normal for the Earth. Also, actually we couldn’t live without it and it’s advantageous for us living on the Earth. Why? It was estimated that, without the greenhouse effect, the average temperature of the Earth’s surface would be approximately -18ºC, thus that are the conditions in which the current environmental ecosystems couldn’t survive at all. The problems with the greenhouse effect become to occur only when the human-made activities are too intense, working very fast, hastening the whole effect and distorting the natural equilibrium of the ‘good amount’ of the greenhouse gases. All in all, then they contribute to the global warming itself. So what are these human-provoked causes of the enhanced greenhouse effect?

        As we already know, one of the greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide. Therefore, one of the causes of the phenomenon is the deforestation. While there are no trees, the process of photosynthesis is not possible, so the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere rises rapidly (there are no trees which can absorb CO2). What’s more, when the forests are, for example, burnt, carbon dioxide also grows in amount as it’s the main product of the combustion. Also, the level of carbon dioxide is increased thanks to the car engines in which the gasoline is burnt and as well as by burning of other fossil fuels (coal used as e.g. energy source, still very popular in many countries like Poland; oil etc.). Moreover, human-made electrical devices such as air-conditioners, refrigerators and also everyday life’s objects, e.g. aerosols cans and these from the plastic manufacturing, are the source of CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) that contribute to the ozone depletion and, consequently, the greenhouse effect. As far as the ozone depletion goes, the increased levels of UV-B radiation reduce the amount of plankton in the Earth’s waters and thus less CO2 is absorbed as well. Also, generally the manufacturing and industry processes contribute to the increased amount of greenhouse (industrial) gases available in the atmosphere, since there are large needs of manufacturing for the population all over the world (therefore, one of the reason of the effect is, of course, population growth). The more people on the Earth, the more industrial activities happening. A lot of agricultural practices increase the level of methane and nitrous oxide as well. So, all in all, there are a lot of human-induced causes of the greenhouse effect that are, in fact, really serious.

        How can we reduce the impacts of such a phenomenon? First of all, we should consider reducing the use of fossil fuels, which is really difficult task nowadays. It will for sure minimalize the amount of carbon dioxide produced. There are a lot of alternative and renewable sources of energy as we live in the 21st century (solar, wind and nuclear power plants, solar panels on the houses etc.). Although it sounds easy, such energy sources are very often difficult to be installed due to some law regulations and, what is the most striking, they are believed to be more expensive than traditional fossil fuels. However, in fact, they’re cheaper while taking into account further costs of using after some time (they only require a lot of money at the beginning: for construction, workers, materials etc.). Of course, the technology is still developing so maybe this fact will improve the situation of renewable energy sources. Furthermore, the forests may be expanded as well and deforestation should be limited and this is not a hard thing to be done. The easiest way to reduce the greenhouse gases’ amount is taking responsibility for the everyday situations in our life. Thus, we should turn off the light while it’s not used; use public transport or bicycles as frequently as possible; change all conventional light bulbs into efficient ones; use energy-efficient devices and buy the ones with hi-tech specifications; also take part in various propagandas and be open to the modern ways of cultivation and the successive replacement of fossil fuels. In my opinion, these alternatives and ways of reducing of the greenhouse effect are not so difficult and complex. These are only the authorities and ourselves who can do something reasonable about the whole issue.